Garo Side Story: Smile
Garo Side Story: Smile is a DVD exclusive bonus episode of Garo. Synopsis Kaoru has a dream and enters her Makai Realm, but finds she cannot leave. After consulting with the God of Pictures, she must go on a quest to find the Gold Pencil in order to leave this world. Plot Summary Kaoru is asleep and begins to dream, as she does, she finds herself on a stage surrounded by paintings. A man in a white suit who resembles Gonza appears, Kaoru mistakes him for the butler and is overjoyed at him being there. The man says he does not know this Gonza and that he is the God of Pictures who lives in the Makai Realm. He says that she has entered her Makai world, as all humans possess one that embodies their personalities and conflicts. He tries to explain further that this could make her a Makai artist, but Kaoru is more interested in the paintings behind her. One of the frames is missing a Marc Chagall painting and Kaoru throws a tantrum that she cannot see it and wants to leave. The God of Pictures says that she cannot leave until she finds the Gold Pencil, as she has made 1,000 Makai drawings and if she can find it, she can summon it to create drawings that will make people happy and smile. At first, Kaoru doesn't care about the pencil until he mentions she cannot leave without it, as it is Makai law. She must find someone who loves her drawings more than anything in order to obtain it. The God leaves and she is left alone to ponder who this person is. A drawing of Kouga smiling appears, one that Kaoru drew. It comes to life, frightens her, and starts talking. The drawing flirts with her and says that it is Kouga, but she is creeped out by its advances and tries to stab it with her pencil, only to discover it enjoys it and creeps her out even more. The drawing wants her to jump into its arms so it can carry her away. She says she likes it better when Kouga is antisocial, as she finds the idea of Kouga being this obsessed about her repulsive and runs away from it. The Drawing chases after her, but she manages to get away from it by falling off the stage, dropping her pencil. Kaoru wakes up to see a woman who looks like her best friend Asami, only for the woman to say she is The Goddess of Painting. She asks Kaoru if she dropped a giant pencil made of solid gold. Kaoru gets greedy and lies, saying that it is indeed hers. The Goddess can tell she is lying and the two fight over it, before the Goddess runs off with it as punishment for her dishonesty. Kaoru then sees three girls in summer yukatas, who are in fact manifestations of The Eastern Watchdogs. They say that they support Kouga from the shadows, but Kaoru misinterprets this as Kouga being a lolicon, as she notes he does not seem to have an interest in older women and feels disgusted. The three girls reassure Kaoru that Kouga loves her and her paintings and give her cryptic advice on how to find the Gold Pencil. Kaoru feels insulted being lectured by elementary school girls when Kodama suddenly appears, she asks if he is their babysitter. Kodama laughs at her and starts talking fast in English, making bad puns and talking about himself, saying that he feels frustrated that he doesn't get any lines in the show and has a lot he wants to say before sitting down. Because of his fast speaking, Kaoru misinterprets his English as a Kansai-ben accent. The three girls say that the man she is looking for is worried about her and she should go. They briefly talk to each other in English and then leave. A man and a woman in 17th century clothing appear behind Kaoru playing chess and greet her by name. She wonders why these two know her but then recognizes their voices, they are Zaruba and Silva, though Kaoru does not remember Silva's name, much to her annoyance. She asks them what they are doing here and why are they humans. Both say that they often meet in the Makai Realm to discuss matters involving supporting their partners. Silva casually insults Kaoru as stupid while Zaruba asks Kaoru for a favor: To support Kouga no matter what so he can be happy. Silva almost tells Kaoru about being stained in the Blood of Horrors and that Kouga simply wants to use her as bait, but Zaruba tells her to stop talking. Silva says that she would rather have it all out in the open and Kaoru asks what Kouga is hiding. Silva says she will tell her the truth if she will kindly die afterward and pulls out a knife from her fan. Zaruba holds her back and Silva laments that Rei has "a thing" for Kaoru when she is always there for him, indicating she is jealous. Zaruba tells Kaoru to hurry and run and keep drawing pictures for Kouga's sake. Kaoru runs off the stage and sees someone in the seats, her mother, the two happily reunite and talk about her career as an artist. Mrs. Mitsuki asks Kaoru if she has found anyone special, and she says she is unsure about Kouga. Kaoru asks where her Father is and she says he is busy painting the mural again at the kindergarten. Kaoru tells her mother that she wants her to see the mural, as it was Yuuji's final gift to his wife before she died. But Mrs. Mitsuki starts growing weak and says she knows that her husband made the drawing for her. Kaoru is surprised she knew about it, but her mother says that he used to draw just to make himself happy until he met her, then he had someone he could share his love of art with. She then goes on saying that art can affect someone's life and make it better, and that her father was happy to have someone special in his life to give him happiness. Kaoru cries, realizing her previous assumptions of her father were wrong. Her mother says she hopes someone will appear in her life soon that will bring her happiness. Mrs Mitsuki then passes on, leaving a crying Kaoru all alone. Kaoru then sees herself as a young girl drawing a picture while her father watches and shows her how to color. Kaoru then realizes the first person to love her drawings was her father. Yuuji then sees his daughter and hands her the Gold Pencil, then walks off with young Kaoru. Kaoru narrates that this dream she had was during her time living with Kouga, and she at first did not understand why her father gave her the Gold Pencil until much later. The special person her mother was talking about was Kouga and that she will work hard to see him smile. Cast *''to be added'' *''to be added'' Notes *This episode is presented in a live stage show-style format. *This episode is the only instance where Kodama speaks, and he speaks like a fast talking American. This is because the actor who portrays him, Mark Musashi was raised in the United States and English is his first language. *Both Hironobu Kageyama and Ai Orikasa make appearances in this episode as the human forms of Zaruba and Silva. *This is also the episode where the viewers learn that Silva is a bit possessive of Rei, as she becomes hostile towards Kaoru and tries to kill her out of jealousy. *The continuity of this episode seems to take place somewhere during or after Nightmare, as the painting of Zero and Garo is shown during the ending scene and Kaoru does not know about being used by Kouga or that she will die in 100 days from being infected with Horror blood. *This episode is the last to use the first opening of the series, but uses the intro credits from the second half of the series. None of ending themes were used in this episode *The Goddess of Painting asking Kaoru if the Gold pencil she had was hers and not giving it to her because she was lying is a reference to the folktale of the Honest Woodman *This Episode was not featured in the US Blu-Ray release of the first season. Errors *''to be added'' References